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a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Ludacris — Ludaversal

by Alizeh Ejaz on

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After going incognito from the music industry for a while, veteran rapper Ludacris has finally reemerged with a bang, with his long awaited album Ludaversal hitting the shelves on March 31. Over the past five years, Luda remained largely committed to Hollywood, appearing in The Fast and Furious franchise; yet, his return to the rap industry is nothing but a step forward in his career. 

The strength of Luda’s album largely lies in his lyrics, which convey a solid transformation of character from a notorious party animal to a settled-down dad, which is evident in his song “The Grass is Always Greener”: “I used to be out partying every damn night/ Now sometimes I’d rather be with my kids.” Furthermore, the contemptuous tone depicted by the word choice of “fake appearances” and “crap game” in his song “Charge it to the Rap Game” illustrates Luda’s dissatisfaction with the rise of a superficial rap industry. However, the rap industry isn’t the only thing Luda is unhappy with, as he highlights in his song, “Call ya Bluff.” Luda mentions, “Leave the booth and then go lay low hiding behind your security detail,” in order to emphasize his discontent and haughtiness towards the new generational rap artists. 

Although Ludaversal is an impressive album, it lacks consistency in terms of artistic tone. The overarching theme of the album is the significant progress the 37-year-old has made over the past 15 years, yet his song “Ocean Skies” is a melancholic tribute to his father, who dealt with alcoholism. While the more serious tone is a welcome shift from Luacris’ more typically vapid style, it feels out of place in comparison to the rest of the album.

All in all, Ludaversal is Luda’s eager shot-in-the-dark attempt to regain a title he once had.

 
 
 
 
 
a, McGill, News

Student unions throughout Quebec strike to protest austerity measures

by Philippe Dumais on

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On March 23, 60,000 post-secondary students went on strike against the Quebec’s government budgetary policies. 20,000 students voted to hold a one-day strike, while the remaining 40,000 will be on strike until April 2, when another demonstration is expected. 

Although the students were associated under the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ), one of the largest student unions in the province, ASSÉ did not call for a membership-wide strike vote. Local student unions will be able to hold independent votes on the possibility of striking for a day or an extended period of time, according to ASSÉ spokesperson Camille Godbout.

“Since March 21, we’ve [been] calling for multiplicity of actions against the ongoing austerity measures,” Godbout said.

Godbout continued to explain that she sees the initial mobilization efforts as the beginning of a new movement.  

“My perception is that students are angry at the negative effects of austerity measures,” Godbout said. “The Couillard government [has] cut more than $200 million [from] universities’ budgets. It directly affects students in multiple ways, [through] the reduction of the number of courses offered and […] services, such as psychological support provided to students.”

At McGill, a number of individual departments and faculties have voted to go on strike. The Faculty of Medicine voted for a one-day symbolic strike, while the Department of French Literature voted to strike for a week. Other departments and faculties, including Law, Women’s Studies, and English will hold votes next week. 

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President (VP) External Amina Moustaqim-Barrette clarified the procedure required for SSMU to go on strike. 

“Any member of [SSMU] can bring a strike vote to the General Assembly or call a special General Assembly for a strike vote,” she said. 

Moustaqim-Barrette added that SSMU remains committed to take actions against austerity following a motion passed at its Fall General Assembly, and expanded upon her portfolio’s role. 

“I have been acting as a resource person for students looking to get more information or else looking to bring a strike motion to their own departments, faculties, or to SSMU,” she said. “Most of that resource provision is done through a website which provides information and resources on how to get involved, as well as things like strike kits and demonstration buddies for students looking to take action against austerity.”

Vincent Fournier Gosselin, secretary-general of the Fédération des Associations Étudiantes du campus de l’Université de Montréal (FAÉCUM), a student union at the Université de Montréal, explained that about 14,000 students at the Université de Montréal were on strike last week. 

Gosselin added that some associations decided to go on strike for a day, whereas others will do so for an extended period of time.

“Our federation is composed of 83 associations,” he said. “It is the responsibility of their respective general assemblies to decide to go on strike or not.”

Benoit Lacoursière, author of The Quebec Student Movement 1983-2006, explained that he believed that this year’s protests will be different from the 2012 Maple Spring protests, where students mobilized against Jean Charest’s Liberal government’s plan to increase tuition.

“The current strikes try to appeal to a more general sense of citizenship rather than a specific issue such as the tuition fees, as was the case three years ago,” Lacoursière said. “[Students also] seem more prepared and their actions less improvised [….] They are more vocal through social media, but their presence on campuses remain minimal.”

Lacoursière continued to state that students may have difficulties mobilizing this year. He underscored the effects of the Summit of Education, which was held by Pauline Marois’ Parti Québécois government in 2012 as a follow-up to the student protests. After the summit, Marois’ government announced that it would enact a three per cent annual increase on tuition.

“What we see right now is different attitudes [within the student movement] in conflict with each other,” he said.  “There is a certain fatigue by some students who were actively involved in 2012, some others are discouraged by the results of the Summit on Education that followed, [and] some groups also radicalized themselves.”

Lacoursière explained that he was not very optimistic about the expansion of the current protests.  

“At the moment, there are few signs of momentum for students,” he said. “The likeliest scenario is that we will have day strikes throughout the spring instead of a larger grassroot movement.”

a, News, SSMU

SSMU Council discusses austerity measures, sustainability coordinator position

by Elie Waitzer on

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Sustainability plebiscite question

Sustainability Research Commissioner Julie Skarha solicited the opinions of Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council on the creation of a Vice-President (VP) Sustainability position on the SSMU executive team. 

A plebiscite question in the 2015 Winter Referendum on whether to institute a VP Sustainability portfolio or create a full-time Sustainability Coordinator position yielded inconclusive results due to a majority abstention. Skarha went on to outline the fundamental differences between the options. 

“A VP Sustainability would be elected by the student body and sit on Council [while] the full-time coordinator […] would be a permanent employee of SSMU focusing on long-term goal setting,” Skarha said.

Another key difference would be the cost to students. According to Skarha, it would cost $10,000 to $20,000 more per year to create a full-time position. SSMU President Courtney Ayukawa cautioned Council members against letting their opinion on the position be influenced by its cost. 

“The decision should be made on the basis of what resources students need the most and not based on the cost to SSMU,” Ayukawa said. 

VP Finance Kathleen Bradley voiced her reservations regarding the VP Sustainability option, highlighting the level of expertise needed in such a role. 

 “I think public perception of executives is not very high. Students would be angry at the thought of wasting [their] dollars on executives,” Bradley said. “There are a wide array of skills involved in sustainability that require an intimate knowledge of how […] bonds and equities are traded, which is not something that I think [every candidate] would be comfortable with.” 

VP Clubs and Services Stefan Fong echoed these sentiments, adding that the long-term nature of sustainability planning would be better suited to a full-time position. 

“Executives tend to change year-to-year […which would] make it difficult to enact change in sustainability,” Fong said. 

Arts & Science Senator Chloe Rourke spoke in favour of having a VP Sustainability. 

“Having an executive makes it much more public,” Rourke said. “Students are more likely to engage with what a VP has to say because of the representation aspect.” 

In the straw poll that followed the discussion, the vast majority of Council members were in favour of instituting a full-time Sustainability Coordinator rather than an executive position.

Motion regarding SSMU’s policy on accessible education 

Councillors voted to send a motion regarding SSMU’s policy on accessible education to an unspecified future referendum. The motion calls for SSMU to adopt a broad five-year policy calling for public re-investment in post-secondary education from all levels of government in light of the recent tuition increases and austerity measures imposed by the Quebec government. Several Council members, however, expressed concerns over the wording of the second clause in the motion.

“Be it resolved that the SSMU [oppose] any mechanism or legislation that would permit a non-consensual increase in student fees for any student,” the clause in question reads.

Engineering Representative Anikke Rioux argued that the motion was not a constructive vehicle for alleviating austerity pressures on students. 

“It’s hard to get the respect of the government without offering any tangible solutions to the problem,” Rioux said. “There’s a huge debt [in the university] and I don’t think this motion is feasible at the moment.”

Rourke took issue with the long-term nature of the motion, stating that five-year legislation should be forward thinking and not reactive to the current issues facing the student body.

“What if [austerity cuts are] not the case five years from now?” Rourke said. “There might not be a need to mobilize against austerity [at that time,] we don’t know, and that’s not something that should be in this motion.”

An amendment from the floor to strike the clause entirely from the motion passed with a majority vote, but VP Internal J. Daniel Chaim and several other Council members still felt there was a need to bring the amended motion to a referendum. 

“Under 100 people stayed at the [General Assembly] to debate this [motion], so I would be nervous to pass [it] at [Council],” Chaim said. 

Council ultimately voted to send this motion to a referendum due to a lack of student consensus at the General Assembly.

Negotiations over women-only gym hours 

In response to the McGill administration ending negotiations over the implementation of women-only gym hours, Council passed a motion that will look to compromise with the university on certain points in efforts to move forward. Administration announced that negotiations would no longer be ongoing on March 16, citing that McGill University sought to keep its facilities secular and co-educational.  

The first clause of the motion aims to re-open negotiations with McGill, and the second clause recognizes the need expressed by the student body for women-only spaces in the fitness centre. Arts Senator Kareem Ibrahim explained the compromise proposed by SSMU to the administration. 

“There will be some points in the week where female-identified people will be able to access women-only space—inclusive of trans identities—but no time in the week where male-identified gym patrons will not be able to access gym space,” he said.

a, Art, Arts & Entertainment

Leveling Up

by Luka Ciklovan on

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Gamer. For a lot of people, the very word conjures up images of a basement-dwelling creature who feeds on Doritos and Mountain Dew, fears sunlight almost as much as social interaction, and guards the bridges of YouTube comments with a fierce, troll-like rage. Given the years of controversy video games have faced around the world—being labeled as a catalyst for antisocial personality disorder or a gateway for sex and crime—this negative stereotyping is not surprising. The fact that the U.S. Supreme Court only recognized video games as an art form in 2011, thus granting the medium First Amendment protection, stands as a testament to the ‘second class’ status of video games that permeates society today. 

In his article “Video Games Can Never Be Art,” critic Robert Ebert attempted to sever any link between video games and art on the grounds that “you cannot win” art. According to Ebert, video games are often riddled with “rules, points, [and] objectives” and can never be art, because art demands that you experience it devoid of any metric of success.  Ebert continued his assault on video games in his piece “Why Did The Chicken Cross the Genders,” claiming that video games will “never be worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists, and composers” due to the notion that they fail to make us more “cultured, civilized, and empathetic.”  Yet, even within a goal-oriented framework, this is precisely what video games—like any other art form—convey. 

No matter how you look at it, at the root of any definition of culture and civilization lies the notion that they lead to a greater understanding of a common human experience, a formation of one’s own identity based on self-reflection in the face of this human experience, and ultimately a sense of belonging to a larger human community as a result of these reflections. Video games offer many powerful ways of imparting these universal concepts and empathizing with the world around us—they only demand that we be receptive. 

Peter Henry, president of the McGill E-Sports Students’ Association, has been a firm advocate for considering video games as art.

“Of course, there’s a creator behind a game, and I feel if there’s an intention—whether it’s books, art, movies, video games—as long as someone is actively working to create a particular experience, it’s art to me,” he explained.

The biggest barrier for people to take video games seriously, according to Henry, lies within the interactive nature of the medium.

“People who play video games a lot have a lot of experience with games, and control schemes in particular, so when you hand Call of Duty to someone who doesn’t even know how to hold the controller, how can you expect them to fully experience the game?” 

He also cites time commitment issues as another factor that limits the accessibility of video games.

“As long as you have a two hour attention span you can see a whole movie, but if you’re not willing to work through a game, which could last anywhere up from 60 hours, you’re not going to get the intended experience,” Henry argued.

One of the most unique ways video games enable us to connect to this sense of culture and empathy is through the unparalleled agency the audience is given within the medium. While video games do often tell an unalterable narrative—much like a novel or film would—they allow us, the player, to decide the precise manner in which it unfolds. This ultimately can make us more attached to the narrative and grasp its underlying themes in a truly powerful way, as we have a greater emotional stake in the game. 

Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain offers a prime example of this phenomenon. Heavy Rain places you in a situation where you must complete five trials at the hands of the Origami Killer in order to save a loved one. The fact that the players themselves participate in those trials—vicariously choosing how exactly to tackle them through the character of Ethan Carter—forces them to care, to some degree, about the narrative outcome they’ve been attempting to realize for hours on end. Regardless of the fact that there is a clear goal to the game, the player can ultimately experience something beyond the images on screen. 

Another method through which video games are able to convey grander, emotional messages lies within their mechanics, which are the specific rules or systems that govern the video game. The player uses them as a means to engage with the fictional world. The mechanics in chess, for example, enable the players to move their pieces only in accordance with each piece’s respective move set, and require the king to be taken to win. When mechanics begin to convey aspects of the game’s narrative, however, they enable the player to feel the emotions that the developer is trying to convey, and can thus lead the player to new understandings about themselves or the world around them.

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Jordon Magnuson’s Loneliness consists of simple black pixels moving across a white background, allowing the player to feel a permeating sense of alienation as a result of its mechanics. You play as a square that is constantly confronted by groups, or patterns of other squares, but can never interact with any of them as a result of their instantaneous fleeing from you. The player’s inability to successfully interact with anything in the game makes them feel useless, unwanted, and powerless. The game is meant to mirror what thousands of people across the world face everyday, and ultimately familiarizes the players with how they would grapple with such an issue. 

Agency and mechanics, if wielded properly by the developers, are extremely powerful ways for us to explore not only ourselves, but also how we interact and understand the world around us through the medium of video games. For Henry, video games are especially important in providing positive social experiences that may not be as easily conveyed by other artistic forms.

Ultimately, video games are still in their infancy as an art form. We are at the beginnings of a medium that has the power to seriously impact people’s lives in meaningful ways if we only broaden our perspectives and allow it to do so.

a, Features

An evolving brand: Frank and Oak launch a tech-savvy marketing platform

by Sam Pinto on

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 today’s online world of instant access to everything, it’s tough to find a company that’s able to stand out and distinguish itself amongst the vast array of retail brands increasingly focused on web-based sales. However, Montreal-based Frank and Oak has succeeded in this regard, grasping the attention of a tech-savvy, young demographic of 20-35 year old males that appreciate the company’s careful attention to detail and user-friendly website experience. It also doesn’t hurt that Frank and Oak’s trend-setting style has been noted by men’s fashion bibles such as GQ and Esquire.

“The world of retail is [definitely] shifting,” explained Hicham Ratnani, Frank and Oak co-founder and McGill alumnus. “Today our demographic is very active, very connected, and they’re going out for experiences. They’re [also] using mobile all the time [….] The client has very high expectations, whether it’s mobile or web, so we have to deliver on all these platforms.”

According to Ratnani, Frank and Oak, as well as much of the rest of the retail industry, is moving towards an “omni-channel” approach to sales. With this model, Frank and Oak uses as many channels as possible to reach out to its clientele, while at the same time seeking to provide an equal level of service regardless of which one the client chooses. Such platforms go beyond the store front and include online, social media, and mobile options.

“Omni means all, so what they’re doing is […] saying, ‘Okay, we want to use all of the various channels be it online retailing, be it offline, be it brick-and-mortar right at their store,’” said Ralph Cecere, a professor at McGill’s Faculty of Management. “For example, if they’re running a special, [Frank and Oak] wants to push a flannel shirt or something, if you look [it] up on your mobile device [and] I go actually into the store, we’ll get the same info, we’ll get the same price, we’ll get the same promotion, we’ll get the same exposure to the product. They’re trying to reach from all of these different channels.”

Frank and Oak was born online. Ratnani and co-founder Ethan Song constructed a simple yet intricate website with a captivating layout that displayed its own designed and manufactured clothing. Merchandise changes monthly based on crowdsourced design ideas. Customers are asked to sign up as members in order to shop, and to date over 1.5 million have done so.

According to Saurabh Mishra, a marketing professor at Desautels, being an online outlet provides Frank and Oak with a plethora of opportunities that a traditional store cannot compete with, particularly by offering customers a far larger array of product options than a physical outlet could have.

“There are quite a few perks actually [to selling online],” explained Mishra. “One of the big things is that you can offer a lot more variety [that] is not easily possible with brick-and-mortor stores, precisely because stores are limited in terms of how much merchandise they can keep, and proximity to the warehouse becomes an issue. That’s what customers really like—this customized approach.”

Websites don’t require the same investment, overhead costs, rent, or costs of operation that their physical counterparts demand. In addition, online retail provides a company with a significantly larger reach than a brick-and-mortar store in one location does. As a result, the vast majority of Frank and Oak’s sales have been outside of Montreal.

“There is a huge potential [for] online sales and a lot of shopping is done that way, and is [also] a way of reaching out to a greater audience,” Cecere said. “About 70 per cent of their sales [go] to the U.S., and a third of those is in California. So [they’re] Montreal-based and reach out as far out as California, and ship sales out there. Brick-and-mortar is not going to get [that] done.”

a, Student Life

Montreal couture

by Tiffany Le on

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The diversified culture of Montreal offers an ideal setting to create art through fashion. Two Montreal businesses, Kimberly Fletcher and It’s Not Cool It’s Weird (INCIW), work with drastically different crafts, leather, and vintage clothing in Montreal. However, both companies demonstrate that quality, dedication, and passion are key ingredients for the articulation of this form of art and that Montreal is a great setting for its showcase.

Kimberly Fletcher

Kimberly Fletcher is the designer behind Kimberly Fletcher, crafting beautiful leather handbags and accessories at an atelier—what they call a workshop in fashion—in the Plateau. Fletcher graduated from the fashion program at Marie Victorin College in Montreal, and then went on to study in leather school, a subcategory of study within the program dedicated to leather. Here, Fletcher was discovered by Louis Lamarre, the designer behind Territoire Atelier, and was invited to work with him at his leather goods boutique in Outremont. It was here that Fletcher found what would become her passion: Leather handbags and accessories.

“It was a huge opportunity,” Fletcher said. “School will always be there if I want to go back, but this [was] the only chance I [may] have. So I [grabbed] it.”

From there, Fletcher flourished. She was barely 21 years old and was making collections with nearly every designer in the handbag industry, the most notable of which was m0581. m0581 is a well-known company in the city that locally designs and creates handmade leather goods. However, for Fletcher, this meant less creative work, and in the end, she wanted to move on.

“One morning, I decided [that working in someone else’s company] was over [for me],” Fletcher elaborated. “I wanted to start my own business because I was kind of sick of putting these other designers’ names on the product that I made. I [thought to myself] ‘Today is Friday,’ so I quit everything. I went to business school from there and I started my own business.”T   here’s a particular advantage to starting a business in Montreal because permits are low-cost and more accessible. The tourist clientele of Montreal also tends to come from a wealthy, international background. Consequently, they’re also searching for local designers. The market is also seemingly reverting back to small-scale production, which places value on quality, construction, and finesse. This is part of the reason Fletcher chose to have her atelier open to the public.

Fletcher said that she tries to establish an active relationship with her public.

“The mentality of the consumers is amazing,” Fletcher said. “They are very concerned about how people are working. When they come into the atelier and they see the [sewing machines], they are more impressed [….] For them, it’s kind of an attraction. It’s very old school, but I think it’s working.” Apparel and handbags fall into different sectors within the industry in Montreal. According to Fletcher, the seasons operate at a disparate pace. Department-store buyers for handbags don’t all purchase around the same time, as is typical with clothing lines. It’s also quite a smaller circle to run in, as far as competition goes.

“[The designers in the leather goods industry] all have the same suppliers that we go and buy our [leather] skins from,” Fletcher said. “We’re always there around the table talking about our new collections [….] I think [the competition is more within] every team. They believe so much in [their] product [and in] always wanting to be better and better. We are a jungle but we do respect each other’s art.”

INCIW

 The loud and unapologetically unique clothing brand INCIW was created around two years ago by a trio of young designers The eco-friendly group is made up of Maria Mariano, Pascale Cleary, and Catherine Gagnon, who curate vintage pieces to redesign, renew, and sell. Mariano is a former McGill student from the biochemistry department who picked up freelance fashion photography, discovering her love for style and design. Cleary and Gagnon are sisters and models who loved fashion from a young age.

The idea behind INCIW is to make structural changes in the foundation of how fashion is produced. Rather than subscribe to fashion’s fast-paced production using new materials that are replaced every season, INCIW wants to slow the industry down to appreciate what already exists. In the long term, this may become the only way for the fashion industry to be sustainable.

“We really love fashion and love to express ourselves in this kind of art form,” Mariano said. “We just kind of wanted to develop it in a different way. We all wanted […] to have a structural change in fashion.” 

Inspired by the underground, quirky vibe of Montreal’s subculture, INCIW created its clothing based on what they see in hte city.

“The diversity [of Montreal]—that’s what I like, that’s what we like,” Cleary said. “I could just sit and watch people passing all day and I could just be fascinated.”

These three ladies manage the entire company, from the creative direction to the finances. Working out of a basement atelier, the three complement each other throughout the entire process.

“I think that’s actually the awesome part about us because we all bring something that the other one is missing, and we’re always having a blast,” Gagnon said. “Together, we’re all getting along so well and our ideas all connect but in a different way. It just brings the magic.”

INCIW’s approach adds a particular value to its clothing that people are seeking at a reasonable price.

“[It] brings back the whole ‘couture’ feeling where it’s, ‘This one jacket is yours, but it’s accessibly yours,’” Mariano said. “It’s almost like you’re kind of buying an art piece.”

Gagnon also said that materials from the past tend to be better quality. 

“Nowadays, we feel like everything is made cheap, made on purpose to break and re-buy,” Gagnon added. “That doesn’t go with our vision. Our vision is very great quality stuff and the production is just for you [….] It can just last long, forever.”

Vintage fashion is sometimes misunderstood because it branches off into so many sub-categories. There’s a sector of restored vintage clothing where any type of stylistic reworking is strictly forbidden. Often, they cater to a very specific aesthetic or era. INCIW opted for a more artistic direction while taking advantage of the superior quality of old textiles. Because of this, INCIW does not necessarily follow seasons in fashion, but is instead constantly creating new pieces.

“We have a lot of creativity, so we want to add something, modernize what’s old and make it new,” Cleary said. “We take risks.” 

Montreal cultivating local fashion designers

 

H owever, the transition into owning a boutique is a difficult step. Both Kimberly Fletcher and INCIW rely most heavily on their online presence for sales. From an individual business website to third-party websites like Etsy and Depop, the Internet is a growing market. The costs of owning a fashion business are also high; from paying for a studio to buying materials, to renting a space—it requires an exuberant amount of money.

“[A third-party web-seller] is more accessible at first,” Cleary said. “Accessible in the sense that the structure is there, it’s known already, [and] there are people doing it.”

For Fletcher, selling online before opening a physical shop was also about getting to know the customer.

“I wanted to be sure the product was good enough for the market,” she said. “I wanted to test the price, the quality, and know what the customer was thinking. When you’re in the business, you have to respect every step [….] So at first, this is the reason why I just wanted to start slower and put my name out there and the product, and then I will be ready to go onto the next step.”

Last year was big for Fletcher. She produced all the accessories that accompanied Philippe Bubuc’s collection down the runway. Bubuc recently won the 2015 Menswear Designer-of-the-Year award at the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards.

“[Bubuc] told me, ‘Every year I will come back to you because I love the quality,’” Fletcher said. “To be acknowledged by someone [who] is bigger than you is always huge.”

For both of these companies, fashion is more than just an industry. It’s a form of art that is the basis of human interaction. The precision, care, and dedication afforded to each and every piece does make a difference—not only in the products themselves but also in the mentality of the wearer. 

“It’s your armour to the world,” Gagnon said. 

a, Opinion

Commentary: Religious education and the pursuit of secularism in Quebec

by Ryan Kipp on

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In the latest addition to the debate on secularism in Quebec, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled last Thursday to allow Loyola High School to teach its students about religion, ethics, and religious culture from a Catholic perspective. The Court decided that the provincial government’s refusal to grant the school’s request to do so constituted an infringement on religious freedom. So long as it satisfies the province’s requirement to teach the doctrines and beliefs of other religions to students “objectively and respectfully,” Loyola will be allowed to replace the faith-neutral Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) course mandated by the province with an equivalent program amended to emphasize the school’s Catholic ties.

Since its adoption, the program has attracted controversy. Although the precedent set by Thursday’s ruling will grant denominational schools greater autonomy with regards to religious education, it does not imply that the ERC is a questionable or restrictive program, nor does it represent a setback in Quebec’s goal of societal secularism. By making Loyola’s exemption from the ERC contingent upon respectful, objective teaching of other faiths in the classroom, the Court’s ruling is a necessary compromise for balancing Quebec’s goal of secularism with religious tolerance.

The ERC was made mandatory in 2008 for all elementary and high schools, public and private. It stresses a strict policy of faith-neutrality to ensure that students are taught about the beliefs and ethics of world religions, as well as Quebec’s religious heritage, in a respectful, unbiased way.

Loyola’s appeal regarding the ERC is the second of its kind to face the Supreme Court since 2008. In 2012, a Catholic couple sought the exemption of their sons from the program on the grounds that it interfered with their ability to educate their children about their faith, thereby infringing on their religious freedom. Although it was ultimately denied, the fact that the request was raised in the first place and made it to the Supreme Court calls into question the feasibility of promoting religious tolerance and respect through the education system. The problem, however, does not lie with the educational system. It lies with citizens who not only refuse to educate themselves, but see the education of their children about the beliefs of their fellow citizens as a violation of their freedom.

A secular society is not one that extinguishes religion, but one that balances respect for religious differences with secular values.

Some people, like those who belong to the Mouvement laique québécois (Quebec Secular Movement) deny that religion deserves any place in curriculum at all. A secular society, though, is not one that extinguishes religion, but one that balances respect for religious differences with secular values. The point of religious education is not just to inform students about the world’s various religions, but to explore how belief in general functions in human society. While religious study may not be necessary for empathy or mutual respect, the role that religion has played in human conflict throughout history, and its continued prevalence in an increasingly multicultural society, make religious study an important part of academic and social education.

On the other end of the religious spectrum, McGill Religious Studies professor Dr. Douglas Farrow, for example, has condemned the ERC as “dangerous” because it introduces students to non-Catholic beliefs and pluralistic value systems. While he maintains that he is not against multi-religious education, it is difficult to believe him when, to support his condemnation of the ERC, he quotes Pope Leo XII’s statement that “it is necessary to avoid at all costs, as most dangerous, those schools in which all beliefs are welcomed and treated as equal.” According to Farrow, this is just what adoption of the ERC entails; for him, however, it is not a positive sign of cultural inclusivity, but an “onslaught against Christian civilization and quite specifically the Catholic faith.”

Given the ERC’s objectives—promoting critical thinking, teaching that people “all are equal in terms of right and dignity”—criticisms like Farrow’s are worrying, not because they point to any problems with the program, but because they highlight issues present in members of the society it was developed for. Regardless, it is ironic that he should denounce the ERC as a fundamentally opposed to the “Catholic view of spiritual development.” Besides the fact that it is exactly what the ERC was put in place to prevent, religious intolerance is not among the practices Catholicism considers as necessary spiritual development. If the biggest danger the ERC presents is that it might introduce to school children the idea that belief systems other than those of their parents can be valid, or that moral judgments may have grounds outside the “traditional religious and moral commitments” of their household, Quebec should take its chances.

a, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Deep Cuts: Dark undertones

by Jon Herlin on

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“Chainsaw” 

Artist: Ramones

Album: Ramones

Released: February 4, 1976

This song begins with a chainsaw. Jonny Ramone’s heavily distorted, relentless guitar keeps up that chainsaw sound throughout—power chords, power chords, and more power chords—and Joey Ramone’s doo-wop, ooooh-oh-oh vocals don’t even try to disguise the fact that the song is about a gruesome chainsaw murder, which is kind of punk: “Texas Chainsaw massacre/ They took my baby away from me.” What’s even more punk, however, is the next line: “They chopped her up and I don’t care, woah-oh.” 

Carmelita

Artist: Linda Ronstadt

Album: Simple Dreams

Released:  September, 1977

Originally written and performed by Warren Zevon, “Carmelita” has led to numerous covers, but Linda Ronstadt’s is the prettiest. The guitar is reminiscent of mariachi and Ronstadt’s vocals are dreamy and unfocused. It makes for a stark contrast to the lyrics, which follow a desperate junkie as he appeals to his lover (Carmelita) to pull him out of the abyss of heroin withdrawal: “Carmelita, hold me tighter/ I think I’m sinking down/ and I’m all strung out on heroin/ on the outskirts of town.” 

Right Profile

Artist: The Clash

Album: London Calling

Released: December 14, 1979

London Calling is such a masterpiece that this track is easy to overlook. Behind the elaborate horns and reggae/ska/whatever-influenced guitar are some seriously dark lyrics. I don’t really know what they discuss, but its probably something to do with alcoholism and/or drug addiction: “Nembutal numbs it all/ but I prefer alcohol.” Ultimately though, Strummer’s vocals just degrade into “aarpghargahshhhsh.” 

Salad Days

Artist: Mac Demarco

Album: Salad Days

Released: April 1, 2014

The titular track of Mac Demarco’s second album is, in fact, an allusion to Shakespeare: the expression refers to youthful idealism and indiscretion. Demarco, however, the typical slacker that he is, looks back on those days not with regret but with nostalgia. Now he’s just getting old and has to do grown up stuff: “As I’m getting older/ chip up on my shoulder/ rolling through life/ roll over and die.” The guitar is so pleasant, and as a result, so artificial, that it could be from an early Beach Boys record. This dissonance, exploring lyrical authenticity against instrumental artifice, is what Demarco wants to convey. 

Redmen football
a, Men's Varsity, Sports

A decade lost: Rebuilding Redmen football

by Aaron Rose on

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Since the 2005 hazing scandal, Redmen football has experienced a decade of on-field futility. Over the past eight years, the team has had five winless seasons. It’s gone through three coaches in that time span, and frankly, the only thing consistent about the team seems to be their awful record. The team is an anomaly among McGill’s litany of other successful men’s varsity programs. Redmen basketball has been to three consecutive RSEQ finals, the rugby team had won eight consecutive RSEQ Championships up until this year, and both Redmen hockey and lacrosse are perennial conference powerhouses—so what’s wrong with Redmen football?

“When I left the team [in 2013…] I really thought we left the program on the up-and-up,” former Redmen linebacker and Winnipeg Blue Bomber Jesse Briggs said. “We won three games that year, [and] lost another game by a point, which would have gotten us into the playoffs.”

Briggs was one of three players from the 2009 recruiting class drafted to the CFL last year, and teammate Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was also drafted in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Unfortunately, only two players from that recruiting class stayed for their fifth years, which has been a recurring issue for the Redmen. Last season, the team only had five seniors on its everyday roster, compared to 33 players in their first year of eligibility.

“It’s kind of been the result of our lack of success in the past years,” newly-appointed Head Coach Ron Hilaire said. “Some players decided not to stay the course [because] they did not believe in the process.”

Zachary Lord and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif
Zachary Lord and Laurent Duvernay Tardif cap off the best Redmen season in a decade (Luke Orlando / McGill Tribune)

For players from outside of Quebec, the transition to RSEQ football can be a dramatic one. The CÉGEP program leaves many out-of-province recruits at a disadvantage in their early years because local players are typically a year older and more physically mature. Recently, these players have given up on the team—deciding to focus on their studies rather than football. For the players from Quebec, many recruits come primarily for football and struggle with the tough academic standards at McGill. The team has been unable to retain these players, as many drop out after their first few years in school.

“I think you have to make sure you get the players who come here for the right reasons,” fifth-year defensive back Zachary Lord said. “If you get a guy who comes here for school, he’s going to stay here to finish his bachelor’s degree [and therefore], he’ll be more inclined to stay here for football.”

That’s easier said than done for the Redmen coaching staff. McGill has rigorous admission standards, and finding players who can play while keeping their GPA up at McGill is no easy task. It’s hard enough for most people to balance four or five courses a week, but imagine trying to manage a normal academic schedule along with anywhere from 32 to 35 hours of football activities a week. It’s no wonder these student-athletes struggle to maintain high grades.

It’s been 12 years since Redmen football’s last winning season, and while it’s probably going to take a few more years before McGill becomes relevant on the CIS football stage, the future does look bright.

“I pulled myself out of sports for a year to see what type of student I would be, and I was a 90s student,” three-time Grey Cup Champion and former Redmen defensive lineman Randy Chevrier said. “The year after, when I went back to [Vanier College] to play football in my last year, […] my academics fell a little bit [.…] When you add the time that it takes to become a good athlete [to] the high [standards] that McGill requires of you to get into certain programs, they will be turning away a lot of people.”

It’ll be no easy task for Hilaire to find those suitable student-athletes for Redmen football. To begin with, the program has been plagued by multiple non-football related scandals over the past decade that have certainly made it much harder to recruit now than it was 20 years ago.

“McGill has to repair some [public relations] with the parents that are considering McGill,” Chevrier said. “Obviously there have been some incidents in the last 10 years […] that have cast a negative light on McGill as an option for the parents of student-athletes.”

McGill has recently intensified its recruiting efforts, following the trend of other Canadian universities by scouting out prospective athletes in their sophomore and junior years of high school.

“[We] recruit the whole year,” Lord said. “Not only [student athletes] in their last year of high school, but you’ve got to recruit them two or three years in advance.”

Even though the football team might not be the most attractive program in Canada, Hilaire has tried to stress the importance and magnitude of getting a McGill education as a selling point.

“At the end of the day, I want all our players to understand that football is an opportunity­—it’s not a career,” Hilaire explained. “So few of [them] will be able to play at the CFL or the NFL level, so the opportunity to get a top-notch education at McGill […] is priceless.”

Redmen Football's iconic helmet (cisfootball.org)
Redmen Football's iconic helmet (cisfootball.org)

In the past, the Redmen focused on recruiting French-Canadian athletes because the CÉGEP program produces athletes a year older than the rest of Canada. Unfortunately, the recent success of other local programs—the Montreal Carabins won this year’s Vanier Cup and the Laval Rouge et Or are undoubtedly the top program in the country—has increased the competition for high-level prospects from the province, and McGill has had to look elsewhere for talent.

“I think if we have a good balance of recruiting the top student athletes from Quebec, across the nation, and in the U.S., [then] we can be very competitive,” Hilaire said. “We just have to put the work in the right areas.”

Part of this process is going to have to fall into the hands of Redmen alumni. Over the years, a significant number of Redmen football players have gone on to become teachers. Last year’s team included 22 players enroled in an education program. When these players graduate, they often become physical education teachers and football coaches in their local communities.

“A lot of football players, especially at McGill, [are] in the physical education program,” Chevrier said. “[The] guys [who] graduated with me 15 years ago have gone on to become teachers in their hometowns, [and] a lot of them are involved in coaching. These are the guys that need to reconnect with the team in order to identify blue-chip McGill candidates—kids [who] can get into a school with good grades [and] can play football at a high level.”

It’s been 12 years since Redmen football’s last winning season; and while it’s probably going to take a few more years before McGill becomes relevant on the CIS football stage, the future does look bright. With a year of experience under their belts, the rookies who were thrown into the fire last year will return looking to improve after a disappointing season. The team has already started indoor workouts, and according to Hilaire, the team looks better than ever.

“I’ve never seen the team like this since I’ve been here,” Hilaire said."[Linebacker Karl Forgues won defensive Rookie-of-the-Year in the RSEQ, so he’ll be back. We’ve [also] made some changes on the offensive side of the ball—I recently hired a new offensive coordinator [Benoit Groulx]; he has a great vision of the game, and was a great football player himself."

It’s not going to be easy for Hilaire to turn around the downtrodden Redmen, but it’s certainly not unprecedented. In 2002, the Carabins went 0-8. Just two years later, they went undefeated, winning the Quebec University Football League.

“Success for me is going out there and being competitive every single game, never giving up, never quitting,” Hilaire said. “It’s all going to be a process. We’re not going to try and find shortcuts. We’re going to work at being better every single week and every single day. If we do that as a team, I think we can only grow and learn from our wins as well as our losses.”

a, Baseball, Sports

MLB Season Preview 2015

by Mayaz Alam, Wyatt Fine-Gagné, Anthony Snell, Elie Waitzer on

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Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 12.31.01 AM american league baseballThe McGill Tribune sports team gives its annual MLB season preview.

 

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